1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to an image forming device and a method thereof, and more particularly, to an image forming device which examines validity of an output object, and determines whether the output object is one that is to be actually printed in a color mode or in a mono mode, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming devices, such as photocopiers, printers, facsimile machines, or multifunction peripherals (MFP) (which offer functions of the preceding devices in a single device) commonly have a printing function. Among such devices, printers are the most widespread for printing data received from a computer or a scanner onto paper or media.
As electronic technology developed, color printers which can print data in color as well as mono (i.e., monochrome, black and white, or gray tone) have also become widespread. The image forming devices capable of color printing, such as a color printer, have a plurality of developing units and toners for cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) (i.e., CMYK) colors. Thus, printing is performed a total of four times in order for each of the four colors to be printed. Accordingly, the printing time thereof is greater than in the case of mono printing, in which printing is performed only once using the black color.
When data to be printed include a mono image, that is, not a color image, the image forming device may still print the data to be printed in a color mode. For example, even though a part of the data would be expressed as an empty space on a print paper or a medium, the image forming device may well recognize the part of the data as color data, and thus, operate in the color mode. This is because red (R), green (G), and blue (B) (i.e., RGB) values are still allocated to the mono image, so the mono image is erroneously recognized as a color image.
In a typical image forming device, RGB values of a pen or a brush are examined, and an image is determined not to be a mono image if the RGB values thereof are for color. However, if an output object to be expressed using a brush or pen is not meaningful data that is to be actually printed, or if there is no output object, errors in a mono image detection occur. Accordingly, the image forming device is operated in the color mode in which printing for CMYK colors is still performed. Therefore, printing time increases.
In addition, in another typical image forming device, data in an entire rendered page are examined, so that if the data are printed using the CMYK colors, the data are determined not to be mono data. However, since a determination as to whether the data are mono data is made using completely rendered data to increase precision, the performance rate or print speed decreases compared to that of a typical method of examining a color value of the brush or the pen.